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"Quite so."
"Very well. Just want you to know...our internal enemies have stepped up the pace. I'm seeing meddling all through our automation.Watch Trinli. I'll bet he's sitting there diddling his localizers." A
A second passed. A
Nau looked to the left, where his huds showed Qiwi's pov in the temp. The main facets of Be
Ritser Brughel glanced up from the pictures of Parliament and shook his head almost in awe. "It's like some Frenkisch prophet's vision of Hell."
Nau gave a gave a silent nod of acknowledgment. With the ten-second time lag, casual chitchat was to be avoided. But Brughel was right; seeing so many together was even worse than the earlier spybot videos. The zipheads' cozy, humanesque translations gave a very unreal view of the Spiders.I wonder how much we are missing about their minds. He called up a separate image of the scene, this one synthesized by ziphead translators from a Spider news feed. In this picture, the steep pit became a shallow amphitheater, the ugly splashes of color were orderly mosaics worked into the carpet (which no longer looked like scraggly hair). The woodwork was everywhere glistening with polish (not stained and pitted). And the creatures themselves were somehow more sedate, their gestures almost meaningful in human body language.
In both displays, three figures appeared at the Parliament's entrance. They climbed (walked) down the stone stairs. The air was full of hissing and clicking, the true sound of these creatures.
The threesome disappeared into the bottom of the pit. A moment passed and they reappeared, climbing the far side. Ritser chuckled. "The midsized one in front must be the spy chief, that's what Bonsol calls ‘Victory Smith.' " One detail of the ziphead story was accurate: The creature's clothing was dead black, but it was more a pile of interlocking patches than a uniform. "The hairy creature behind Smith, that must be the engineer, ‘Hrunkner U
The three climbed out onto an arching spike of stone. A fourth Spider, already on the precarious structure, clambered to its pointed end.
Nau turned from the Spiders' hall to look at the crowd at Be
"Introductions by the Parliamentary Speaker," spoke a ziphead voice. "The Parliament will come to order. I have the honor to—" Around the sensible words, Ritser's spy robot sent back the reality, the hissing clatter, the stabbing gestures with forelegs that ended in rapier points. In truth, these creatures did look like the statues the Qeng Ho had seen at Lands Command. But when they moved it was the chilling grace of predators, some gestures slow, some very very fast. Strangest of all, for all their superior vision, it wasn't easy to identify their eyes. Across the fluted ridges of the head, there were patches of smooth glassiness, bulbous here and there, with extensions that might be the cool-down points for its thermal infrared vision. The front of the Spider body was a nightmarish eating machine. The razor mandibles and clawlike helper limbs were in constant motion. But the creature's head was almost immobile on the thorax.
The Speaker left the tip of the stone needle, and General Smith climbed up, negotiating a tricky passage around the other. Smith was silent for a moment, once she reached the point. Her forelegs waved in a little spiral, as if encouraging foolish persons to get close to her maw. Hiss and clatter came from the speaker. On the "translated" image, a legend appeared over her representation:SMILING GENTLY AT THE AUDIENCE.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the Parliament." The voice was strong and beautiful—Trixia Bonsol's voice. Nau noticed Ezr Vinh's head jerk slightly at the sound of her. The diag traces on Vinh rose with the usual conflicted intensity.He'll be usable, just long enough, thought Nau.
"I come here speaking for my King, and with his full authority. I come here hoping I can offer enough to win your trust."
"Ladies and gentlemen of the Parliament." Rank on rank, the Elected looked back upon Victory Smith. All their attention was hers, and Hrunkner felt the power of the General's personality flowing as strongly as ever it had done. "I come here speaking for my King, and with his full authority. I come here hoping I can offer enough to win your trust.
"We are at a point in history where we can destroy all progress that has been made—or we can make good on all the efforts of the past and achieve an unbounded paradise. These two outcomes are the two sides of our one situation. The bright outcome depends on trust for one another."
There were scattered hoots of derision, the Kindred partisans. U
The General had told him that Pedure was down here herself.Iwonder... U
"I have a proposal. It is simple but it has substance—and it can be put into place very quickly." She motioned for Tim Downing to pass the data cards to the Speaker's clerk. "I think you know my position in the force structure of the Accord. Even the most suspicious of you will grant that, while I am here, the Accord must show the restraint it has publicly promised. I am authorized to offer a continuance of this state. You of the Southland Parliament may pick any three persons of the Accord—including myself, including the King himself—for indefinite residence at our embassy here at Southmost." It was the most primitive peacekeeping strategy, though more generous than ever in the past, since she was offering the choice of hostages to the other side. And more than ever in history, it was practical. The Accord Embassy at Southmost was plenty big enough to house a small city, and with modern communications it would not even cripple the important activities of the hostage. If the Parliament was not totally corrupted, this might stick a bar between the legs of onrushing disaster.
The Elected were silent, even Pedure's buddies. Shocked? Facing up to the only real options they had? Listening for instructions from their boss?Something was going on. In the shadows behind Smith, Hrunkner could see Pedure talking intensely to an aide.
When Victory Smith's speech ended, Be